Overview

An important part of any trash and recycling program are tipping fees (costs) at the landfill. The City of Taylor is currently under contract with the Riverview Landfill. The current budget for tipping fees – the cost of dumping at the landfill – is $530,000 annually.

Mayor Rick Sollars asks this question: With weekly recycling and the GFL Rewards program, can Taylor improve recycling and drive the cost of tipping fees down? Increased recycling is certainly possible, especially when considering the following facts:

The list of recyclable plastics, paper, cans and glass is endless

Americans use 4 million plastic bottles every hour, but only one if four is recycled

Plastic is a valuable recyclable: Just four two-liter PED bottles can make up enough fiberfill for a ski jacket; 10 days of recycled bottles can create 74 million square feet of carpet or 16 million sweaters

Americans throw away enough aluminum every year to provide the auto industry with enough material to build a year’s worth of vehicles; one year’s discarded aluminum could rebuild the entire American airline industry four times over; one ton of recycled aluminum can provide enough energy to power electricity in a home for 10 years

Glass is one of the few materials that can be infinitely recycled; recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours

When it comes to paper, one person can make an impact – a single person uses about one ton annually. If we recycling most of our paper, 30 percent of our landfill space would be freed up

Six hundred and 60 cardboards boxes – approximately the amount that a single American uses in a lifetime of moves – could save seven trees, 18,480 kilowatts energy, 3,080 gallons of water, 35 gallons of gasoline and one cubic yard of landfill space.

“For the City of Taylor, reduced funds that we spend on tipping fees to deposit trash in landfills can translate into increased services and programs for our residents,” Mayor Sollars said. “Instead of throwing that reusable product into the trash container, recycle it. Recycle items weekly, gain points in the GFL Rewards program and cut down on our fees to the landfill. Residents win directly because they receive some type of reward for their efforts, and the community as a whole wins because we are throwing less and less recyclables into the landfill.”